By Michael Reisig

I watched the recent health care debate between Democrats and Republicans with a degree of optimism, in hopes that a balance could be found in which all Americans would benefit. But sadly, I was disappointed as it evolved into a political theater in which our president and his constituents held a determined, uncompromising hold. Promising equal time and equal consideration as moderator, Mr. Obama spoke for two hours. His Democratic constituents spoke for three hours. The Republicans were allowed only a scant one hour and 55 minutes. Welcome to fair and balanced. And when Republicans like John McCain had the audacity to challenge the administrations healthcare policy, Mr. Obama and senate majority leader Harry Reid had no compulsion about reverting to thinly-veiled threats that clearly emphasized, without cooperation (acquiescence) by Republicans, the Democrats would revert to reconciliation.

In truth, anyone with the slightest sense of vision knew from the beginning that this debate was nothing more than an orchestration by President Obama from which he could launch his attempt at reconciliation. It’s sad that our president is only transparent in his attempts at deceit.

It is not the use of reconciliation that is so troubling (it has been used many times since its inception in 1980), but the use of it in a situation for which it was not designated.   Budget reconciliation is an almost esoteric Senate procedure whereby legislation can be passed using a lowered number of votes (a simple majority) under fast-track rules that limit debate. But this process was designed for incremental changes to budgets – not sweeping social legislation that would fundamentally alter one-fifth of our economy. Congress has never used this procedure for major policy alteration or creation, and only a person such as Obama, with such egocentric audacity and contempt for process, would consider it.

Once this bill is used outside of its original intent and purpose, a Pandora’s box is opened – you create a weapon from something that was supposed to be a tool. It’s original intention was to help enact fiscal policy consistent with an agreed-upon congressional budget blueprint, but using the exercise of reconciliation to amend a bills before they become law in order to avoid standard House and Senate conference procedure is a travesty, an insult to the American legislative process.

This whole threat of reconciliation is so in keeping with this administration – a congregation of closet socialists who have relied on partisan backroom deals and untelevised negotiations throughout this whole process. This hostile takeover concept is totally reminiscent of the “cough medicine mentality” of our president, who has determined in Fidelian fashion that he knows what’s best for us. Even when polls show that the majority of the country still does not believe the present health care reform legislation will improve their lives, and Republicans have presented straight forward solutions to amend and improve the bill, our president in his ever present arrogance, is intent on contorting political procedure and twisting the purpose of legislative tools to force the will of Congress to his designs.

This is no longer about what’s best for the American people. It hasn’t been for some time now. It’s about ego, narcissism, and ideology. It’s about a single man’s compulsion to establish his place in history on healthcare reform. I don’t believe that anyone in Congress actually accepts the premise that this legislation will reduce costs or provide better health care for the American people in any fashion. Simple logic tells you that you can’t reduce investment in programs and make them better. You can’t spend the same dollar twice, and ultimately, the unequivocal truth is that there is no endeavor in the history of this country, that the government has taken over and made cheaper, better, or more efficient. From Medicare and Medicaid, to Social Security and the U.S Postal Service, they have all become insatiable, inept leviathans that drain the resources of taxpayers across the nation.

We have a president who has chosen historical significance over conscience, but I would warn him to be careful what he wishes for. If Obama is successful in his manipulations he may have his bill, but I suspect he will be greatly disappointed in the long run as to how he is remembered.

By Michael Reisig

I don’t know if anyone else has noticed, but there are some furrowing lines in the brow of Mr. Obama these days.  Our president recently celebrated his first year in office. However, if you eliminate African-Americans, the welfare classes, and a dwindling percentage of dyed-in-the-wool liberals whose collective guilt and political correctness overrides their intellect, not a lot of America celebrated with him.

With the list of failures and retreats mounting, and the potential for more to come, president Obama has been reduced to somewhat of a deceitful optimist. The New York terror trial, Gitmo’s stubbornness to stay where it is, Virginia, New Hampshire, the failed Olympics bid, rising unemployment, failing ratings, dwindling support for health reform and Cap and Trade – no wonder there are new lines on the man’s face.

Last week another wall crumbled in the bastion of Obama’s administration when Evan Bayh, the centrist senator from Indiana, said he would retire rather than seek re-election in November. Bayh voiced frustration with the lack of bipartisanship effort within his own party. The truth is, there seems to be quite a bit of bipartisanship these days, as conservatives, independents and some liberals begin to unite in a vote of no confidence for this president of ours. It’s understandable if you look at the list of facts Mr. Obama is amassing:

* He is far and away ahead of any other president in the practice of breaking promises. He is now closing in on breaking another milestone promise – that of not raising taxes on those who make less than $250,000 a year.
* He bows to foreign dignitaries (a first for any president).
* He refuses to salute the American flag (another first for any president).
* He has spent over a million dollars on a plethora of attorneys to deny access to his birth certificate (certainly a first for any American president).

The man spends more time on television than Jay Leno, but he doesn’t give press conferences like past presidents  – he gives interviews. There is an understandable logic here. By not giving press conferences he can’t be cornered by reporters seeking answers to a number of pesky questions that plague him, like…
Mr. President, why the hang-up with your birth certificate, sir?
Mr. President, do you consider yourself a Christian or a Muslim?
Mr. President, how is it that you feel comfortable with avowed Communists serving in your inner circle?
Mr. President, why is it that you have chosen to support extremist Islamic organizations like Hamas over our long-time ally, Israel? 
Mr. President, why are you hiring Muslims with questionable histories to critical Homeland Security positions?

Everywhere you turn, smoke is becoming fire – Obama’s failure to grasp the importance of enthusiastic and immediate questioning for Islamic terrorists, his emasculation of the CIA and his desire to prosecute former agents for harsh interrogation has left much of the country wondering who’s side he’s really on. On his watch we’ve had Navy Seals prosecuted for allegedly punching a terrorist (who was known to have killed Americans and their allies), terrorists in Guantanamo Prison freed sent home, and the blind, mindless plan to try 911 terrorists as civilians in New York City.

While abandoning Israel, our president has begun the process of coddling every Muslim nation on the globe, applying nothing but rhetoric and entreaty to reign in Iran’s aspirations of nuclear power. This is the man who preemptively condemned Boston police officers for “acting stupid” when they arrested a confrontational Harvard professor friend of his, then warned Americans about “jumping to conclusions” regarding the Fort Hood mass murderer who shouted “Allahu Akbar!” as he killed the American servicemen around him. Intelligent people everywhere are beginning to ask themselves, exactly how deep does our president’s affection for Muslims run?

His failure to grasp the essentials of economy and national debt, or foreign financial dependence and control is staggering. His answer to all financial problems is to create more money. This president has doubled the publically held federal debt to a mind boggling $19 trillion, nearly 80 percent of the gross domestic product. He has insisted on driving through health care and Cap and Trade policies that far better than half the country didn’t want, policies that even many in his own party recognized as disastrous and without the possibility of fiscal redemption. And still he went forward.

We have a Commander in Chief who has a communications director who quotes Mao Tse Tung and announces her affection for his ideals. We have a president who blatantly declared war on a single news network (Fox) because they had the audacity to present valid views that were not in lockstep with his policies. He declared in Fidelian fashion that this new agency would no longer be allowed access to the Whitehouse press loop. Then he and his cohorts proposed the government create a press agency…

On top of it all, his actions have heightened class warfare in America. This country is more racially polarized today than it was a decade ago. Obama’s lack of subtlety when it comes to promoting, empowering, and subsidizing blacks in America has not gone unnoticed, and in a time when all of this nation is suffering, it is grossly un-American to establish this Orwellian process of some being more equal than others.  He has alienated Republicans, Independents, and many Liberals with his unabashed Socialistic agenda. The majority of our leaders in the Armed Forces and most of the real career soldiers who understand the threats we face, absolutely abhor him.

Still he stumbles myopically forward, and the worry lines grow.
Sometimes in life, you get what you deserve…

By MichaelReisig

There is no question that America’s recent Tea Party phenomenon has re-established the momentum of conservativism across the country. A hundred years from now, (providing we survive that long), historians will recognize this grass roots movement as a significant direction-changing, motivating force in the politics of our time.

However, the big question is, will it be remembered as having been successful in its efforts to stem the tide of Socialism, Orwellian selective benevolence, and disastrous political and economic decisions on the homefront of America and in the war against Islamic terror.

The movement to return common sense to government is growing, but like a tree that is empowered by rich nutrients, it is branching, and this could well be its undoing. For conservatives to win in the upcoming elections in 2010 and 2012 they must be unified. They can be independents, separatists, rightists, moderate conservatives and radical conservatives, but they must all vote as Republicans, or very likely, this massive effort will have been in vain.

Fragmentation represents the single-most dangerous element for the survival of conservative politics. The creation of independent parties, tea parties, and third parties could well fracture the voting inertia of conservatives and independents, giving democrats, with less than half the votes, a win by default.

Liberals may not always be totally in agreement with their president’s policies, but when it comes to casting ballots, most are still going to vote solidly on the Democratic side of the ticket. There is no interest in third parties or independent parties within the Democratic element. They want Obama re-elected. That unity is their power. They are elated and encouraged when they see conservatives shouting about independent party candidates and tea party candidates, because they know unequivocally, that this drains the voting energy from the Republican party and fragmentizes its power to elect candidates.

Conservatives everywhere must hold fast and resist the temptation toward third parties in the coming elections. They must focus on the big picture, the big goal, which is making Obama a one-term president. There is no doubt that our two party political system is rife with corruption, inefficiency, and indifference. There is no question that a new third party with a fresh approach to government and a commitment to the people has a place in the future of the political processes here. But not in the next election. The time for a third party candidate is coming, perhaps as soon as 2016, but the focus at this point, for conservatives, has to be the removal of Obama from the Whitehouse in 2012, or it will be too late. In eight years of an Obama presidency, the course of this nation may well be irrevocably set and the America that most people in this country have cherished, nurtured, and protected will be gone.

Conservatives must resist the allure of “attractive candidates” who represent possible third party projections, and those same candidates need to set ego and aspiration aside and work within the present Republican system, helping to create the strongest possible platform with which to confront Obama in 2012. They must be methodical and myopic in their efforts toward this goal.

Conservatives everywhere must remember that this is not about ego, or vanity, or pride. This is about winning. This is about pulling America back from the precipice of self-destruction.

By Michael Reisig

Prior to our president’s recent State of the Union message, many people on both sides of the political fence were expecting somewhat of a conciliatory tone, a possible offering of compromise in the direction of this country, given the string of failures Obama has endured recently, including the loud voice of Massachusetts’ voters. What we got was a defiant, confrontational tone that once again blamed the ills America faces on the previous administration. What America got, can only be described as “the cough medicine mentality” that many a mother used to apply -- “I don’t care if you don’t like it. You’re going to take this anyway – because it’s good for you, and I know best!”

We have a president who has reached the point where his ego and his narcissism have completely overridden his intelligence and common sense. He has lost all sense of intellectual equilibrium – blinded by the certainty of his agendas. He is no longer even interested in what America thinks – because he knows best. This is a man who decided in his State of the Union speech to chastise the United States Supreme Court, regarding their latest decision on election funding guidelines, making statements that were not only inflammatory, but virtually incorrect. In this latest speech, which was a remarkable display of agenda, ego, and cough medicine mentality, Mr. Obama has once again alarmed and unsettled those centrally balanced voters, continually forcing them further from the liberal camp.

To add more insult to injury, Obama further angered our military chiefs of staffs with the intended removal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, allowing gays to serve openly in the Armed Forces, proving once again that he considers political correctness more important than sensibility. Mr. Obama has never spent 10 minutes in a military environment, let alone a critical conflict situation, and he has no understanding of how absolutely essential the cohesiveness of a unit is during combat, and during preparation for combat. He has once again added to, rather than diminished, the challenges our men and women face during the worst of times.

Speaking of political correctness and sensibility, never once did he address the challenge America faces with terrorists, imported and domestic, and not once did he address the controversial trial of 911 terrorists in New York.

Still presenting himself as a man for all seasons, one of the most significant overtures our president made was the emphasis on jobs, and this is good, but in the process he subtly assured his stronghold of minorities and special interests that he would keep promoting those welfare measures on which so much of his voting base rely.

As he spoke about support for the middle class I was startled by the inconsistency regarding what he said and who he is. The middle class is Mr. Obama’s enemy, as it has always been with Socialist reformers. Any overtures he makes toward the middle class will become unfulfilled promises. Any monies he procures for the “bourgeois” will be diluted by expenditures for the lower classes.

He is a Socialist and he will continue to practice entitlement mentality until he controls the masses. Socialism speaks of liberty and freedom, but it only empowers the upper few. The rest become slaves to rhetoric and welfare. To empower the middle class is against all of Mr. Obama’s principles. Like the Romans, who passed out bread and wine at the coliseum and distracted the masses with spectacles of gore and brutality, Obama continues his promises of free bread and wine. The spectacles are easily found in the modern coliseum called “pay TV.”

With the advent of Socialism, the upper class is taxed exorbitantly, which tends to create a freefall into the middle class, the middle class is taxed to the point that it is diminished and drained, until, like water in oil, it begins to sink, and form a more profound, expanded lower-middle class, which is kept afloat by “assistance,” and begins to develop an affinity by association with the lower class -- for entitlement and gratuity.

Who actually wins here? -- a thin layer of the upper class consisting of politicians and bureaucrats who have already sold their souls, and the lower class, because they get free bread and wine.

In the process, our “populist” president continues to tell the populace what’s good for them.

Pass the cough medicine, please…

By Michael Reisig

I was watching the news the other night when a reporter conveyed a dramatic scene from one of the latest engagements in Afghanistan -- a wounded American soldier lay bleeding onto the cobblestones of some godforsaken town that wasn't worth one drop of American blood and he looked up, weak with pain and shock, and asked, "What happened? We were their friends a week ago, now they want to kill us."

There are two salient points that young man failed to realize -- one, they were never his friends -- at best, he was being tolerated as a means to an end. Secondly, he is in the midst of a religious conflict, not simply a political or ideological one, and at any point when the sands shift enough and the voice of Islam rises to the surface, generally all other affiliations for Muslims are canceled.

Here's the bottom line -- when you strip away all the pretense and the blind political correctness of our politicians and our so-called allies, you are faced with the fact that Islam has begun to challenge Western philosophy and Christianity around the world. This particular issue, this conflict for a dominant faith on this planet has been simmering for hundreds of years -- since well before the Crusades -- but it has come to a head primarily for three reasons:

With advent of modern transportation and communications, the whole world has become accessible -- in the last 50 years entire segments of indigenous populations around the globe have uprooted themselves and relocated (taking with them their religions and cultures). In particular we have seen a major migration from the Middle and Far East to Europe and the United States.  Muslim numbers have particularly swelled in England, France, the Netherlands, Australia, and the Philippines, as well as the Indonesia and Africa.

It doesn't take a visionary to see the results of those mass migrations and their philosophical rootings. Look at the incredible mayhem we witnessed in Kosovo and Bosnia, or the Muslim-Christian violence in Algiers, Morocco, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia. Consider the terror and destruction wrought in India and Pakistan, the Philippines, and Malaysia -- places that less than 30 years ago were relatively peaceful communities which welcomed Americans. No longer -- because Islam has arrived in strength.

The tendrils of Islam have spread out and begun to compete fiercely with other religions and philosophies wherever they have settled. The British, who prided themselves on being ahead of the curve in accepting New World immigrants are now faced with large Islamic communities demanding sweeping changes in government and culture. Parliament is in open conflict with indigenous Islamic clergies who are blatantly calling on violence against the West and all those in England who support western culture.

Nearly 20 percent of France’s population is Muslim today, Holland as well, and the power of Islam in those locals has begun to institute a harsh sense of political correctness that demands change through intimidation. Violent demonstrations, community censorship, and death threats against politicians and journalists who expose or oppose Muslim agendas are commonplace. Native Dutch, French, and English citizens are leaving those countries in the largest numbers ever recorded.

Secondly, we have developed far more efficient ways to kill each other -- and they are being gleefully employed by Islamic extremists across the globe. This intimidation by mass murder has changed the complexion of world politics, culture, and government. But here's a point we need to be brutally honest about, not politically correct -- when was the last time you heard of a Christian suicide bomber, a Buddhist or Hindu bomber, or a Jewish suicide bomber? The people making bombs and blowing up themselves and others in the name of religion are almost exclusively Muslim, which leads me to my third point.

The concept of jihad has been reintroduced with a vengeance throughout Islamic communities around the world. The concept of dying for your god (and killing as many infidels as you can in the process) becomes more popular by the day.

Ultimately one has to ask, why are they so intent on our destruction? Again I will say, this hatred has its roots in blood spilled centuries ago, then nurtured by bitterness and envy throughout the centuries as the European and American empires emerged and the Islamic world's once powerful influence gradually deteriorated into a polarized culture of brutal despots in gilded palaces and peasants in hide-covered tents. But in recent years, oil has given Islam a new power, and that, with a renewed enthusiasm in the principles of jihad, threatens religions and philosophies throughout the world, particularly Christianity and Judaism. (Islam’s contempt of Judaism goes back as far as the 7th century A.D.)

The problem is not that all the tenants of Islam are steeped in a distain of Western culture (not all are), but that many of the present spokespersons for that religion have devised an acerbic philosophy that presents a hatred for and promotes a destruction of all that is Western, Christian, and/or Jewish.
I know not all Muslims are of this mindset, there are kind and good people of all religions, but in the end that doesn't matter -- it only matters that there are sufficient people of Islamic faith throughout the world who are ready and willing to bring down the bastions of Western philosophy and Christianity.

Finally, one of the greatest underlying threats to our culture is the belief that the righteousness of our cause will automatically blend into a common beaker of patriotism for those of all faiths who share our soil or serve America.

We are so accustomed to finding an amalgam of religions in our foxholes -- throughout this country's modern conflicts Baptists and American Indians have fought side by side with Protestants and Hindus. Catholics, Methodists, and Mormons have stood shoulder to shoulder with Jews and even atheists.
The great common denominator for us has always been our patriotism. We don't understand the concept of religion weighing in over love of country (for us, the two have always been synonymous), and this can be our undoing. It has already risen up and bitten us several times recently, from the battlefields of Afghanistan to our homeland’s military installations.

There are no easy solutions to the difficult and controversial challenges that lay ahead of us, but concealing the obvious with a thin coat of political correctness is not the answer. As this conflict grows (and it will) and begins to more directly affect our homeland, Americans will have to make some harsh decisions. The first of those decisions must be to accept that a war of faiths and a struggle of idealogy is well under way.

And here’s the most inconvenient truth of all – they are much more focused than we are. There may be differences between Shiites, Sunnis, Wahabbists, etc., but when it comes to the tough decisions, they are all Muslims. Americans spend half their time fighting amongst themselves – our political parties eviscerate each other constantly in their struggle for power. Our engagement with special interests and racial/religious controversies constantly drain our energy, shift our focus, and divide this nation. And finally, our blind, headlong rush into political correctness, and the emphasis on diversity is virtually digging the grave for America and Western ideology.

At some point (and I think that point is coming soon), Americans will be forced to decide what is most important – correctness, or survival.